Food waste disposals, garbage disposals, and food waste disposer units are well-known devices—typically electrically powered and installed under kitchen sinks, between the sink's drain and the trap leading to a building's sewer plumbing—and have been around for some time. In fact, the prior art is busy with different teachings for a wide variety of disposers. However, known devices have several shortcomings, which have not been properly addressed.
For example, one widespread problem is that the motors that drive disposers are prone to overheating. To solve this problem and prevent permanent damage to the motor, known disposers implement circuit boxes or circuitry with breakers and switches that shut off the disposer until it cools down. A user will reach the switch and push a button to allow the disposer to turn on again—ideally once the motor has had a chance to cool down. The problem with this approach is that in time the motor may be damaged from repeated overheating. Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a food waste disposer that properly addresses the issue of overheating.
Another related problem is that an adequate amount of water must be introduced along with the food waste in order for the waste disposer to function properly—that is, if too much waste is shoved down a drain and into a disposer without enough water running, the disposer may not process or adequately shred the waste; this not only causes the sink to clog but may also cause the motor to overheat. While some devices implement complex sensors and auxiliary equipment to control a water flow, such methods make disposers for average home use prohibitively expensive and are thus inadequate for average residential kitchens. Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a food waste disposer that properly addresses the issue of directing an adequate water flow to the disposer chamber.
Yet another problem not adequately addressed by the prior art is the noise that is generated by these devices. The majority of the noise of a food waste disposer comes through the mouth of the disposer. The water from the faucet combined with the food grinding generates a loud undesirable noise, and the prior art does not adequately address this issue. Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a quieter food waste disposer.
Yet another frequent problem not adequately addressed by the prior art is that a user may need to turn on a disposer with wet hands. That is, because disposers are typically switched on by flipping an electric switch, careful users must dry their hands in order to operate safely the electric switch coupled to the food waste disposer. This requires the user to dry their hands and then flip the switch. Because a disposer may be used several times while a user is at the sink, the user could very well need to dry their hands only to get them wet again prior to needing to turn on the disposer again. Accordingly, it is desirable to implement a safer means of activating and deactivating a food waste disposer that obviates a user having to dry their hands prior to each use.
Users themselves may cause their disposer units to malfunction or function with less efficiency as it is typically up to users to activate or turn on these devices for an adequate period of time. For example, it is not uncommon for users to forget to turn the water on while the disposer is shredding waste and thus cause the motor to overheat or to work unnecessarily hard. Conversely, it is not uncommon for users to turn on the water too early or allow too much water to flow into the disposer before activating the unit, thus causing water waste. Similarly, a disposer may be activated for too long a period of time (again causing overheating and eventual damage to the motor) or for too short a period of time, causing waste to be processed improperly, and thus remain in the disposer. Along with the problems mentioned above common to disposers known in the prior art, all these common uses—or misuses of disposers—have not been addressed properly.
Therefore, there exists a previously unappreciated need for a new and improved food waste disposer system that prevents or minimizes overheating, allows enough water flow without being wasteful, severely reduces noise generated by the disposer, provides a safer means of operation and simplifies activation of the disposer in order to circumvent user misuse of the disposer.
It is to these ends that the present invention has been developed.